Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters What's wrong with the 280 Rem?

The 270 had a 30-something year head start.....remember the 256 Newton and the 7x64 Brenneke existed already in the 1920's.....looks like Winchester wanted to split the baby between them,and have their own marketing niche.Made no sense to bring out a cartridge identical to the 7x64...

Remington "ate it's young",and helped kill the 280 with the 7RM...the rest is history.

Nothing if you are a reloader. If you are not, you can get same performance at half price from 270 Win.

a 280 owner,

Sycamore

The .280 is a fantastic cartridge; in fact it is almost as good as the .30-06.

That company has made an art form of it.

In its wake there's a number of excellent cartridges that have been poorly marketed and then to left to languish and fade into oblivion.
Perhaps not total oblivion, thankfully there's always loonies to keep them breathing..

7x64 is just the 7x57s loudmouth brother.
Does not have anything meaningfull new to say - but does so loudly.

Seems to me that just not enough companies chamber for it, hard to buy one when very few produce them.

NOT 1 THING WRONG with the .280, usually very good shooters, mild recoil, big performance, BUY IT or send his address to me.
MartyC

orion03,

Actually, it's the other way around. Not many rifle manufacturers chamber the .280 because not many people express much desire to own one. About the only hunters that do are the 5% (at most) who are rifle loonies.

The 280 Remington is one of THE BEST CARTRIDGES OUT THERE!

Just got back from Nebraska, where I took a whitetail doe and a mule deer buck with my .280. Got lots of questions about my choice of .280, over other calibers. After awhile, I just reply with, 'I already had .280 dies when I had the rifle built."

An accurate, repeatable .280 setup, with 140 gr. Accubond bullets at around 3000 fps, is a fairly deadly deer killer.......

The 280 has not worked on anything except Whitetail, Mule Deer, antelope, sheep, goats, caribou, Red Deer, Sita Deer, & Roe Deer for me. Will shoot a slightly heavier bullet than a 270 & extremely versatile. From a practical stand point does nothing a 270 will not do. Definately, a handloaders caliber.

Owning a .280 is not about "need". To quote a friend. "If I NEEDED it, I'd already have it- I WANT it, so just hush up and indulge me!"

In terms of the cartridge itself, nothing is wrong with it. It's a very versatile and useful on a large spectrum of game.

From the perspective of the market however, it's trying wrest away market share from two of the most popular and well established cartridges on the planet, the 270 and the 30-06. Not enough difference between them to justify a third cartridge in the same general niche.

Plus it was developed by Remington, a company that couldn't market a bucket of water to a man whose pants were on fire.

The M700 seems to have done pretty well. And the Core-Lokt bullet line...

And the 7Mag...

I've said it before and it�s still true. The 280 Remington is an excellent cartridge for all but dangerous game. Obviously, elephants and Cape buffalo are out of its realm (unless you to be trampled) and I'd be careful of deer hunting in prime grizzly country (never know who you'll run into), but it�s great for virtually all else.

It is a fine round, that doesn't do anything the 30-06 or 270 does.

Nothing, it's why I dont own a 270 Win. The 280/7x64 will do anything the 270 will.

What's wrong with the .280 is this: it kicks too much for prairie dogs, and it is a little light for buffalo.
If you can get past those faults, it is pretty good.

That is why they make varmint and buffalo calibers! I do not think many of us here just have one gun for everything, that would not be much fun!!

Well, you are right on this. The 280 Remington is not an elephant cartridge, but the 7X57mm is (according to DWM Bell who killed many with this less powerful cartridge). But then, there is the story about mad dogs and Englishmen!